rebel

Justin and I had decided we weren't doing presents for each other this year ... just stockings.

Well -- Justin knew how much I wanted a better camera, and was secretly saving up so that he could buy me a Canon Rebel T3i.  Justification was that this was an investment for our family.

So - I am now the proud owner of a fancy-schmancy new camera, and somehow have to make time to pursue my new hobby a little more seriously.  :)

In February I'm registered to take a few intro photography courses.

In the meantime - here are a few shots I took with the new camera by playing around:

The first pic!

Justin took this one!

Stay-cation.

With a new baby in the house, it was nice for all of us to have Justin home for 2 weeks over Christmas.  And it was especially nice for us to just have some downtime at home as a family!

We fit in some extra game time, and extra laughs with a visit from my brother and sister-in-law. The warm weather and lack of snow meant no tobogganing or other snow-related activities ... but we did play at the playground AND in the sandbox!

window painting

We put window markers in Maklin's Christmas stocking - fun!

On New Years' - the girls were all in for helping Mak decorate - turns out window drawing isn't just fun for toddlers!  :)

Happy Birthday Dadda!

Things have been crazy around here and we don't always take the opportunity to tell Dadda how much we love and appreciate him and all the things (big and little) he does for our family.

After a wonderful Christmas day, rather than packing up the kids and trying to make the bedtime transfer, we stayed overnight at Justin's parents.  Justin got to sleep in in the morning (anyone out there with young children knows just how valuable this is!), then we hung out and had a leisurely breakfast followed by a nice walk in the winter sunshine.

We're going to go shopping together for a dress jacket.  On a similar theme - but with much more sentimental value, his Dad gave him a pair of cufflinks that were his grand-fathers - priceless.  He also got a leather-bound photo album with pictures of his ancestors.

We don't say it nearly often enough, but it's true:  WE LOVE YOU DADDA!!

all is calm; all is bright.

Christmas this year was really quiet ... just out little family and Justin's parents.  And is was great.

A tradition in Justin's family (from German heritage) is to have 'candy bowls' - this year we had traditional German bowls sent to us from relatives in Germany.  The tradition has evolved in our family so that each year, a different family member goes shopping with Menno to buy the candy ... trying to get a little bit of everyone's favorites, and always on the lookout for new treats to include.  Each person gets their own bowl with a little bit of everything; and it's your bowl of treats for snacking on over the holiday.  It was my year to go shopping.  We found the bulk of our treats at Carol's Sweets - pretty fun to bring literally a few dozen jars of candy down from the shelves and stack them at the till to start making little baggies!!

We started off the day with Christmas brunch - Lee's amazing Eggs Benedict.  SO GOOD.

Christmas dinner - we had prepped as much as we could in advance.  Good thing!  In trying to pull dinner together we managed to:

1) forget to plug in the roaster!  Thankfully Baba noticed we couldn't smell turkey yet and we managed to plug it in time to still eat!

2) boil a pan dry whilst steaming vegetables.

3) almost forget to cook the brussel sprouts.

4) spill over the scalloped corn in the oven leading to a messy oven, and a smokey house.

We pulled it all together in the end though ... and it was DELICIOUS.

We opened stockings before naptime, and presents afterward.  And did a lot of just hanging out and visiting (and picking at our candy bowls!).  We had a great time watching each other open gifts - so fun to try and find just the right things for each other.  But of course, taking the time to spend the day together and really enjoy each other's company and be thankful for having each other, and having wonderful (and plentiful) food was the best.

Maklin 'reading' his Dora magazine from his stocking.

Mae's cute little Xmas dress.  So cute so she had to wear it, but it actually
ended up  being more like an Xmas sweater and tights (it was a bit snug!)

Our tree - breakable ornaments on top, and most of the remaining ornaments  weighing down only 3-4 lower branches, complements of Maklin.

Mae squeezing into Santa jammies!

Lounging Christmas afternoon -- nothing better than reading stories with Baba!

Maklin modeling his new art apron.

'twas the night before Christmas ...

Wishing you all a safe and happy christmas filled with the fun and love of family and friends.

teddy bears

Christmas is just around the corner, and Maklin and I have been talking about doing Christmas baking for weeks.

Today, we finally started.  We prepped for sugar cookies (tomorrow) and made chocolate teddy bears today.

I know ... most blog posts Mak isn't wearing pants.  He prefers to go "no pants" at home ... 

Justin isn't home tonight, and so at 10pm, both kids have been snuggled nicely into bed for a few hours ... and I can now sit down with laundry going, toys away, and the kitchen cleaned up!!

Mae wasn't a very active participant in making cookies this year!!

walkin' in a winter wonderland

just chillin'

Maeyer lounging in the arm chair at Lulu & Bubba's - smiling and cooing.

warm & tozy

For the longest time when Mak got out of the bath, as soon as his wet little feet hit the bath mat he was off for his 'nudie run' around the house.  The last little while, he wants to be 'all wrapped up' in his towel, and then was getting frustrated when the towel would fall off when he was running around.

Solution?  Adorable little boy in a fuzzy little housecoat.  And now he can be all wrapped up, warm and cozy, and still run around.

Look how STRONG I am already!

Beloved hand-me downs

Maeyer has been blessed with a bunch of hand-me down clothing from friends and family.

This one's for you Auntie Robyn:

We had to get a quick pic - my 'little' girl grew out of 0-3 clothing ... at 6 weeks!

Little ?????

 Little angel??

or

Little Devil??

Lovingly remembered ...

Ivan & Sadie -- know I think of you often, and lovingly.

We had some really hard times at the end ... but some sweet sweet memories to hold onto.  This is one of my favorites:  ROTFL

RIP.

Jammers

Before Mae was born, Maklin was putting diapers on his stuffies.

Now they need jammies too:

Mama's Little Helper

Gotta start 'em early!  She creates a lot of laundry, so she better learn to wash it!!  ;)

crafty

And so begins a long list of Christmas crafting ...

yummy!!

When Maeyer is finished with her bath, she smells de-licious.  All natural grapefruit and lavender body wash, all natural citrus lotion, and coconut oil to battle the cradle cap.

She smells like a freshly baked pineapple upside-down cake.  I could just eat her up!  Yum.

Happy [belated] Birthday!!

One month later ... a birthday party for Maklin / baby shower for Maeyer.  Might as well start having joint parties now!

In the hub-bub of the party - Maklin unfolded his couch and crawled in with a book (close up to follow).
Guess he needed a little 'downtime'!

Big thanks to all the babies/toddlers and their parents who came out.  It was a chaotic nutty good time; Maklin had a lot of fun running around with his friends and is very thankful for the spoiling he got. He's especially loving reading all his new stories!!!

Maeyer ... well she mostly slept through the festivities this year.  I suppose she's saving up her energy for next year's shaker.

She was so quiet in fact, that the only picture I got was of her having a cuddle with Joanna.